scholarly journals Contestations for urban space: informality and institutions of disenfranchisement in Zimbabwe—the case of Masvingo City

GeoJournal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (5) ◽  
pp. 1277-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chigwenya Average
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Global South ◽  
Main Stream ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
The People ◽  
The Face ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
The City

Abstract Informality has been viewed as the seedbed for economic development especially in the cities of the global South and many cities have been trying to integrate this sector for economic development. The sector has been seen as the option for economic development in cities of the global South in the face of dwindling resources for economic development. However, the development and growth of informal activities in some of these cities have been stunted by institutional reforms that have taken so long to accommodate such activities. Most of the cities have acknowledged the need to integrate informality in their economies but they have remained illusioned by the neo-liberal urbanisation policies that have kept the informal activities on the periphery of the development agenda. As a result the role of informal sector in economic development in cities of the global South has not been fully realised. The study was taken to examine the institutional impediments in the growth of informal activities in the city of Masvingo, to see how the laws and policies of the city have been applied for the integration of informal sector in the main stream economy. The research found out that there are institutionalised systems that disenfranchise the informal sector in the city of Masvingo. These institutions include the planning approach and the way the city has been practicing their planning. These two institutions have been the chief disenfranchising instruments that have denied the people in the informal sector their right to the city. The research utilised a mixed methods approach to the inquiry, where both qualitative and quantitative data were used. The research found that there is space for informal integration in the city of Masvingo, but the existing regulatory framework is stifling the growth and development of the informal sector in the city of Masvingo. There is therefore need for the city to be flexible enough to embrace the realities of the city, because informality is really the new form of urbanisation in cities of the global South.

scholarly journals Proposal for a Methodology for Sustainable Rehabilitation Strategies of the Existing Building Stock—The Ponte Gêa Neighborhood

Designs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Michael M. Santos ◽  
João C. G. Lanzinha ◽  
Ana Vaz Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
Expected Improvement ◽  
Water Efficiency ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
The City

Having in mind the objectives of the United Nations Development Agenda 2030, which refers to the sustainable principles of a circular economy, it is urgent to improve the performance of the built environment. The existing buildings must be preserved and improved in order to reduce their environmental impact, in line with the need to revert climate change and reduce the occurrence of natural disasters. This work had as its main goal to identify and define a methodology for promoting the rehabilitation of buildings in the Ponte Gêa neighborhood, in the city of Beira, Mozambique, with an emphasis on energy efficiency, water efficiency, and construction and demolition waste management. The proposed methodology aims to create a decision support method for creating strategic measures to be implemented by considering the three specific domains—energy, water, and waste. This model allows for analyzing the expected improvement according to the action to be performed, exploring both individual and community solutions. It encompasses systems of standard supply that can reveal greater efficiency and profitability. Thus, the in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of urban space and buildings allows for establishing guidelines for the renovation process of the neighborhood.

The Virgin Mary and the People of Liguria: Image and Cult

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 280-297
Author(s):  
Jane Garnett ◽  
Gervase Rosser
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Local Church ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
The People ◽  
The Face ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

We begin with an image, and a story. Explanation will emerge from what follows. Figure 1 depicts a huge wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, once the figurehead on the prow of a ship, but now on the high altar of the church of Saints Vittore and Carlo in Genoa, and venerated as Nostra Signora della Fortuna. On the night of 16-17 January 1636 a violent storm struck the port of Genoa. Many ships were wrecked. Among them was one called the Madonna della Pieta, which had the Virgin as its figurehead. A group of Genoese sailors bought this image as part of the salvage washed up from the sea. First setting it up under a votive painting of the Virgin in the harbour, they repaired it, had it repainted, and on the eve of Corpus Christi brought it to the church of San Vittore, close by the port. A famous blind song-writer was commissioned to write a song in honour of the image. Sailors and groups of young girls went through the streets of the city singing and collecting gifts. The statue became at once the focus of an extraordinary popular cult, thousands of people arriving day and night with candles, silver crowns, necklaces, and crosses in gratitude for the graces which had immediately begun to be granted. Volleys of mortars were let off in celebration. The affair was managed by the sailors who, in the face of mounting criticism and anxiety from local church leaders, directed devotions and even conducted exorcisms before the image. To stem the gathering tide of visitors and claims of miracles, and to try to establish control, the higher clergy first questioned the identity of the statue (some held it to represent, not the Virgin, but the Queen of England); then the statue was walled up; finally the church was closed altogether. Still, devotees climbed into the church, and large-scale demonstrations of protest were held. The archbishop instituted a process of investigation, in the course of which many eye-witnesses and people who claimed to have experienced miracles were interviewed (giving, in the surviving manuscript, rich detail of their responses to the image). Eventually the prohibition was lifted, and from 1637 until well into the twentieth century devotion to Nostra Signora della Fortuna remained strong, with frequent miracles or graces being recorded. So here we have a cult focused on an image of secular origin, transformed by the promotion of the sailors into a devotional object which roused the enthusiasm of thousands of lay people. It was a cult which, significantly, sprang up at a time of unrest in the city of Genoa, and which thus focused pressing issues of authority. The late 163os witnessed growing tension between factions of ‘old’ and ‘new’ nobility, the latter being marked by their hostility to the traditional Genoese Spanish alliance. Hostilities were played out both within the Senate and in clashes in the streets of the city. The cult of Nostra Signora della Fortuna grew up in this context, but survived and developed in subsequent centuries, attracting devotion from all over Italy.

scholarly journals RAINWATER MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS IN CITIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF ZIGUINCHOR, SENEGAL

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-79
Author(s):  
Cheikh FAYE ◽  
◽  
Bouly SANÉ ◽  
Eddy Nilsone GOMIS ◽  
Sécou Omar DIÉDHIOU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Demographic Development ◽  
Runoff Water ◽  
Interview Guide ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rainwater Management ◽  
The City

Senegalese cities are experiencing very rapid growth in terms of both spatial and demographic development, which has an impact on the management of runoff water, which is increasingly a major concern of authorities and urban populations. In these cities, public sanitation infrastructure is insufficient and unevenly distributed in urban space. The objective of this study is to characterize the problem of rainwater management in the city of Ziguinchor (southern Senegal). The methodology is based on an administration, a questionnaire submitted to 288 heads of households, and an interview guide with 13 actors who stand out in the environmental management component at the local level. The results obtained attest to a real problem of sanitation of rainwater managed in precarious conditions due to the lack of infrastructure and water management methods used by households. The infrastructural problem is a factor in the poor management of rainwater in Ziguinchor, while rainwater drainage practices do not protect the living environment of the populations. In the city of Ziguinchor, the main strategies adopted in the face of the sanitation network deficit are based on backfilling, the laying of sandbags and stones, evacuation through buckets.

scholarly journals Quality of urban space as a factor of Almaty’s sustainable economic development

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-20
Author(s):  
N. K. Nurlanova ◽  
F. G. Alzhanova ◽  
Z. T. Satpayeva
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Universal System ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Sustainable Economic Development ◽  
The City

In Kazakhstan, in recent years, there has been an intensification of urbanization processes due to the uncontrolled migration of rural population to cities. In this regard, there arise the number of problems related to ensuring the quality of life in cities.The purpose of this article is to assess the quality of urban space and its role in sustainable economic development on Almaty example. When assessing the quality of space in Almaty’s districts, there were calculated the groups of indicators that reflect the basic characteristics of a modern city: safety, comfort, ecology, diversity, modernity, business environment, quality of life, social development and human capital. Data from open sources were used: Department of statistics of Almaty, Committee on legal statistics and special accounts of the General prosecutor’s office of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Department of emergency situations of Almaty.The study concluded that the spatial development of Almaty is uneven. Four types of territories were identified in the city structure: the historic center, integrated with the adjoining business center; microdistricts of mass housing development (sleeping areas); old areas of low-rise buildings and private households; new annexed areas that are characterized by unregulated individual housing construction. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the quality of urban space is an important factor in the sustainable economic development of the city, in particular business.It was also concluded that it is necessary to develop a universal system of urban development indicators for use on an ongoing basis by representatives of business and the Akimat of Almaty in order to more fully identify the problems of urban space development, develop and implement strategic plans for the city’s development, as well as urban researchers.

scholarly journals Sociocultural and political aspects of urban space formation: images «inside» and «outside»

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-135
Author(s):  
N. Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Image Construction ◽  
City Brand ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
External Actors ◽  
Personal Understanding ◽  
The City ◽  
Different Levels

The purpose of the article is to analyze the phenomenon of the city as a communicative environment that creates images. Concrete historical examples of the formation of the image of the city, both from the side of the internal observer and from the side of external actors, are considered. The morphological analysis used in the study makes it possible to consider in more detail the elements of image construction and their interconnection. According to the results of the study, the author concluded that the formation of the image of the city takes place from two positions in relation to it – «inside» and «outside». Each of them defines the city as a unique environment at different levels. The first way of constructing the image of the city is based on personal understanding and reading, which makes the city understandable in terms of its use. The second type of image is associated with the formation of a city brand, which is based on a strong archetype or dominant that makes it unique and recognizable. Correctly constructed images are beneficial for the authorities, since attractive cities can be a magnet for investment, which in turn entails the socio-economic development of both the city and the region as a whole.

scholarly journals Cities in Asia by and for the People

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Capitalist Production ◽  
The People ◽  
Alternative Spaces ◽  
The City

This book examines the active role of urban citizens in constructing alternative urban spaces as tangible resistance towards capitalist production of urban spaces that continue to encroach various neighborhoods, lanes, commons, public land and other spaces of community life and livelihoods. The collection of narratives presented here brings together research from ten different Asian cities and re-theorises the city from the perspective of ordinary people facing moments of crisis, contestations, and cooperative quests to create alternative spaces to those being produced under prevailing urban processes. The chapters accent the exercise of human agency through daily practices in the production of urban space and the intention is not one of creating a romantic or utopian vision of what a city "by and for the people" ought to be. Rather, it is to place people in the centre as mediators of city-making with discontents about current conditions and desires for a better life.

Islam as a Language of Popular Politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 227-255
Author(s):  
Abhishek Kaicker
Keyword(s):  
Urban Life ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Protests ◽  
The Face ◽  
The City ◽  
The Ideal

By the 1720s, disorderly gatherings and protests appeared to have become an integral part of urban life in Delhi. This chapter shows how such tumults of the city marked acts of everyday political assertion by ordinary people. Relying on the gestures and practices of Islam to publicly demand “justice” in the face of “oppression,” such protests appropriated the ideal of the ‘Community of Muslims’ for their own ends. Accordingly this chapter examines a central gesture in such political protests: the popular interruption of the Friday sermon. Although it emerged in a moment of sectarian controversy in 1711, the act of interrupting the Friday sermon quickly came to serve as the key symbolic means by which the people challenged the enunciation of imperial sovereignty when it did not lend its support to them.

Public installations or how to reclaim our rights as citizens

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 97-106
Author(s):  
Rana Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Public Places ◽  
American University ◽  
American University Of Beirut ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
The People ◽  
The Face ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
The City

This article focuses on the importance of reclaiming our rights as citizens and our public spaces by documenting two different public installations/performances that took place in Beirut. The first took place in Spring 2018 and was organized by BePublic Lab at the American University of Beirut, and the second was the Architectural Association Visiting School that took place in Beirut in Summer 2019. Both installations led to a series of interventions on the stretch between Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael, an area that has been witnessing gentrification in recent years. Both projects aim to trigger political engagement and raise public awareness in the face of the lack of public space, especially for the youth, in a city that is gradually moving towards a near total privatization of its public places. They emerged as a response to the sociopolitical strategies of depriving the citizens of their basic needs by privatizing what was once everyone’s. This article argues that urban interventions are an opportunity to address sociopolitical issues through spatial and temporal public installations. These installations, tailored to a human scale and anchored in the city as both art and architecture, reflect on the power of public interventions as urban catalytic tactics that engage with the people and challenge the blasé attitude of the citizens, pushing them to claim their rights to the city.

Ephemeral venues: Architectural illustrations and depictions of the masses in Perón’s ‘New Argentina’

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Patruno
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Urban Culture ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The City

During the Peronist years (1943‐55), architect Jorge Sabaté designed several exhibitions and ephemeral installations to be erected in the central streets of Buenos Aires. These interventions were aimed at transforming the face of the city, repurposing its spaces for unprecedented uses and expressing the right ‘the people’ had gained to free time, outings and leisure. In this article, I examine the architectural illustrations that Sabaté appended to the rest of his plans. The incorporation into his drawings of the social practices of metropolitan strolling is one of the ways in which the Peronist exhibitions designed by Sabaté relate to urban culture. By staging the masses in these materials, Sabaté proposes a whole new form of conviviality in public space and depicts the popular sectors aspiring to a new lifestyle made possible by the intersection of technological progress and expanded access to consumer goods.

scholarly journals Concept Of Revitalization Of Selected Military Facilities Of Dragoons Barracks In Olsztyn

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Zagroba
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Design Concept ◽  
Social Pathology ◽  
Complex Program ◽  
Military Facilities ◽  
The City ◽  
Negative Phenomena

Abstract Revitalization is a complex program to restore the functioning of the neglected urban areas in terms of spatial, economic and social. Revitalization activities on post-military facilities are stopping negative phenomena, such as degradation of space, social pathology or lack of proper functioning of the area, adapted to modern needs. The object of the work is to present some aspects with the revitalization of former military facilities in the area of the Artyleryjska Street in Olsztyn. The presented design concept aims to revitalize a neglected area of the barracks, which will enable the activation site and include it in the city urban space. The method adopted in this work is the architectural project of adapting selected post-military facilities for new functions, affecting the economic development and social integration of people.

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